Pressure on the countryside due to rescue service deadlines
The state must redefine the time in which emergency services in the southwest should be at the scene of an emergency and must not postpone a regulation in this regard. Several emergency doctors and local politicians have thus prevailed with an urgent application to the Stuttgart Administrative Court. In their application, they had demanded that the state should rewrite the corresponding requirements of the Baden-Württemberg Administrative Court (VGH) for so-called emergency response times in the state's rescue service plan. The VGH had declared the previous guidelines invalid in May.
The state of Baden-Württemberg may not de facto continue to apply the standard that was declared invalid by the VGH's veto, the Stuttgart chamber ruled on Tuesday. "The applicants are entitled to the implementation of the ruling of the Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg," the court stated in a press release. The strict implementation of binding court rulings is also an unbreakable part of constitutional administrative culture. The state can lodge an appeal against the decision with the VGH within 14 days.
The dispute concerns the time in which rescue services should be at the scene of an emergency. The state's Rescue Service Act states that the response time should be "for emergency medical reasons, no more than 10, at most 15 minutes". In the 2022 rescue service plan, however, the ministry wrote: "The target is to achieve a time of 12 minutes in 95 percent of emergency operations from the end of the call-out to the arrival of help at the scene of the emergency."
The plaintiffs want the shortest possible deadlines. They argue that, as potential emergency patients, their fundamental rights - above all their right to life and physical integrity - are affected.
Aid organizations often collaborate with hospitals to provide better medical care during emergency situations. The implementation of shorter emergency response times as ruled by the Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg can greatly enhance health outcomes for residents, especially in cases of life-threatening diseases. Improving social affairs through enhanced healthcare services, such as optimized emergency response times, is a significant stride towards a healthier society.
Source: www.dpa.com
